[C15] Sandstone Oracle

[Naixin]

Seems like it'd be ok in shops. Power out lock pieces, fast mana, and work shops. Lock a blue player to 7 cards in hand. Drop this monster, repeat.

[gkraigher]

Card drawing in Shops isn't the same as card drawing in Blue Decks.  

Shops doesn't care to draw cards for the sake of finding anwsers.  Shops does want to have a card advantage by having more permanents in play, for the sake of having an advantage on the board.  There are very few cards that do that while drawing cards:  Staff of Nin and Sword of Fire and Ice.  Both cards gain tempo and continue to add fuel to the engine.  Coercive Portal is the only other viable card drawing tool for shops, but it shines in the mirror match as well as other matchups were trading cards 1 for 1 is going to happen.  

Sandstone Oracle is unplayable because it doesn't fill the role in the matchups where you would want it to.  For 7, I would always rather have Mry Battlesphere than this card.  

Now it is possible for this card to see play in the Big Blue Draw 7 deck as a viable Tinker target after a draw seven has been cast.  But I still think Myr Battlesphere is better.  

[nedleeds]

re: shops applicability

Imagine having Metalworker / Greaves and having a big turn ending with a KFM activation. What scenario do you want this guy? I honestly can't think of many. Blightsteel often wins, Hellkite is bigger and evades and blows up things, the other 7 mana flying 4/4 is Platinum Angel which is pretty narrow and unexciting these days but I can think of more situtations where I'd want angel. Give this thing some more size, and a better creature type and it might have been marginally playable. 4/7? Sphinx Construct Advisor?

[xouman]

playing shops i'd prefer this creature against "combo" and battlesphere against aggro. Battlesphere goes for a fast win or avoids losing against lots of creatures. This card, providing there is a hard lock, means drawing lots of cards to lock opponent. I'd play it with full set of tangles, spheres, trinisphere, metamorphs, riashidan port... just don't let the opponent play, and refill while beating. Maybe even smokestack? Serum powder, and mull aggressively into hate?

In blue this seems bad. With blue you have more cards than your opponent, not less, so you are not drawing.

[Protoaddict]

This seems perfectly fine as a one of in a deck that runs tinker and potentially one that runs show and tell. But even then I would think its is mostly for tinker.

[vaughnbros]

Metalworker shops could probably use this as refill after dumping its hand.  It certainly seems more viable than Karn Liberated for the function of a top end bomb since it avoids Thorn/Lodestone and can be cast with Workshop.

[MaximumCDawg]

Actually, I wonder if this has a home in big blue.

Hear me out.  You know how you sometimes Tinker for a Memory Jar?  Well, now you can Tinker for better-Windfall as well.  That's not totally out of the realm of possibility.  Also, it seems pretty amazing if you're playing Welder games; you'll be discarding your hand anyway to Thirst and stuff in that kind of deck, and tinkering this in and out can be worth some cardz.

[gkraigher]

Karn Liberated is awesome because it reads:  Exile a Permanent and Exile a card in your opponents hand.

This card really has no place in metalworker shells, if it was a construct maybe in Legacy.  Maybe, still pretty doubtful. 

Anyway, this thing is a real tinker target.   It does play nice with Thirst and Welder, but I don't even know if Welder is a thing anymore. 

[Protoaddict]

It makes tinker a recovery tool as well as a win tool. If you are behind on cards/board state and a blightsteel isn't enough, tinker is usually a dead card without timewalk in your hand. This not only lets you gets you recover into a few new cards, it also leaves an artifact behind that you can subsequently tinker out again if you draw a regrowth effect off your new hand.

I do like that it gives you an early option. You would almost never rush a blightsteel if you can tinker turn one, but this is a reasonable T1 if you can protect it since it refills your hand. Land, Mox, Mox Tinker into this, and your looking at a 4 turn clock with a new grip of cards. On the play against shops that is really strong since it can trade with a lodestone or just go to town in the air.

[Khahan]

Actually, I wonder if this has a home in big blue.

Hear me out.  You know how you sometimes Tinker for a Memory Jar?  Well, now you can Tinker for better-Windfall as well.  That's not totally out of the realm of possibility.  Also, it seems pretty amazing if you're playing Welder games; you'll be discarding your hand anyway to Thirst and stuff in that kind of deck, and tinkering this in and out can be worth some cardz.

I've been thinking about this but its just too conditional.  The conversations about what it *can* do are all focusing on a best case scenario.  However, what about the times its been 'land-go' for a few turns and you both have a full grip?  Or the times you've resolved AR or thirst and draw into this?  Its a dead card. Who wants a 4/4 flier with a 5 turn clock in any big blue shell?  Don't judge a card on its  best-case-scenario.

[MaximumCDawg]

But if it's a one-of that gives you more modes with Tinker, being conditional is tempered by the fact that you won't usually see it unless you're actually in that situation.

[Protoaddict]

It is also tempered by the fact that if you are playing it in blue you can shuffle it back with brainstorm and jace, prevent drawing it with ponder, pitch it with Thirst, and so many more things.

[Aaron Patten]

So is every card.